World Regional Geography - Europe, Ch 4

Source in whole or in part from
Fundamentals of World Regional Geography, 2nd edition, by J. J. Hobbs;
and some of my own notes

STUDY

PLAY

Suitable for cultivation.

arable

The fragmentation of a political area into many smaller independent units, as in former Yugoslavia in the Balkan Peninsula.

Balkanization

The name used to collectively refer to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

Benelux

A generally smaller political unit adjacent to a large, or between several large, political units. Such a role often enables the smaller state to maintain its independence because of its mutual use to the larger, proximate nations. Uruguay, between Brazil and Argentina, is an example.

buffer state

Goods used to produce other goods.

capital goods

The 16-mile (26-km) tunnel that links Britain with the European continent. It was completed in 1994 at a cost of more than $15 billion, making it the single most costly project in landscape transformation ever undertaken.

Chunnel (eurotunnel)

The tense but generally peaceful political and military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

cold war

The process of forming collective farms in Communist countries.

collectivization

An earlier name given to the (current) 25 countries that make up the European Union. In 1957, an initial six countries combined to form the European Economic Community (EEC), and this supranational community has grown to have considerable economic and political importance in Europe. See European Union.

common market

One of the most important dynamics in geography, cultural diffusion is the engine of change as crops, languages, culture patterns, and ideas are transferred from one place to other places, often in the course of human migration.

cultural diffusion

An area where innovations develop, with subsequent diffusion to other areas.

culture hearth

A landform resulting from the deposition of great quantities of sediment when a stream empties into a larger body of water.

delta

The process by which a sovereign country releases or loses more political and economic control to its constituent elements, such as states and provinces.

devolution

The study of the interrelationships of organisms to one another and to the environment.

ecology

The relocation or killing of members of one ethnic group by another to achieve some demographic, political, or military objective.

ethnic cleansing

Part of the authority of the European Union has been the institution of a new currency that has become coin of the realm since early 2002. Not all EU nations accepted the euro.

euro

The name that was replaced in 1993 by the term European Union. The European Community continues to serve as a governing and administrative body for the EU.

European community

An economic organization designed to secure the benefits of large-scale production by pooling resources and markets. The name has been changed to Economic Union. See also Common Market.

European economic community

An organization that maintains free trade among its members but allows each member to set its own tariffs in trading with the outside world. Members are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland.

European free trade association (efta)

The current organization begun in the 1950s as the Common Market. It now is made up of 25 nations (see Chapter 3).

European union

A long, narrow extension of the sea into the land usually edged by steep valley walls that have been deepened by glaciation.

fjord

In the process of continental and valley glaciation, the deposition of moraines that become lateral or terminal in the act of glacial retreat. This same process also leads to glacial scouring

glacial deposition

In the process of continental and valley glaciation, the moving ice picks up loose rock and reshapes the landscape as the glacier moves forward or retreats. Process also results from glacial deposition

glacial scouring

The strong ocean current originating in the tropical Atlantic Ocean that skirts the eastern shore of the United States, curves eastward, and reaches Europe as a part of the broader current called the North Atlantic Drift.

gulf stream

Nazi Germany's attempted extermination of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, and other minorities during World War II.

holocaust

Rock formed by the cooling and solidification of molten materials. Granite and basalt are common types. Such rocks tend to form uplands in areas where sedimentary rocks have weathered into lowlands. Certain types break down into extremely fertile soils. These rocks are often associated with metal-bearing ores.

igneous (volcanic) rock

A fine-grained material that has been picked up, transported, and deposited in its present location by wind; it forms an unusually productive soil.

loess

The plan designed largely by the United States after the conclusion of World War II by which U.S. aid was focused on the rebuilding of the very Germany that had been its enemy in the war just concluded. Secretary of State George Marshall (who had been Chief of Staff of U.S. Army from 19391945) was central to the plan's design and implementation.

Marshall plan

Rock formed from igneous or sedimentary rock through changes occurring in the rock structure as a result of heat, pressure, or the chemical action of infiltrating water. Marble, formed of pure limestone, is a common example.

metamorphic rock

A city together with suburbs, satellites, and adjacent territory with which the city is functionally interlocked.

metropolitan area

A political entity that is tiny in area and population and is independent or semi-independent.

microstate

A rainy, deforested upland, covered with grass or heather and often underlain by water-soaked peat. Also, Muslim inhabitants of Spain.

moor

The drive to expand the identity and strength of a political unit that serves as home to a population interested in greater cohesion and often expanded political power.

nationalism

A warm current, originating in tropical parts of the Atlantic Ocean, that drifts north and east, moderating temperatures of Western Europe. Also known as Gulf Stream.

North Atlantic drift

A military alliance formed in 1949 that included the United States, Canada, many European nations, and Turkey.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The level to rolling lowlands that extend from the low countries on the west through Germany to Poland. These are areas rich in agricultural development, dense human settlements, and a number of major industrial centers. The plain is broken by a number of rivers flowing from the Alps and other mountain systems in central Europe into the North and Baltic Seas.

North European plain

Political boundaries that have minimal political or structural impediment to easy crossing between two countries.

open borders

Two names for the organization created in 1948 to organize and facilitate the European response to the 1947 Marshall Plan. In the early 1960s, the OEEC became the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and this served as a multinational base for continued planning in economic and social development. The Common Market came to overshadow this organization, and finally, the European Union, in 1993, became the most powerful and influential multinational organization in Europe.

Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

A belt of country at an intermediate elevation along the base of a mountain range.

piedmont

An area reclaimed from the sea and enclosed within dikes in the Netherlands and other countries. Polder soils tend to be very fertile.

polder

Description of an economy or society characterized by the transformation from manufacturing to information management, financial services, and the service sector.

postindustrial

A city that dominated a country's urban scene, and usually defined as being larger than the country's second and third largest cities combined. Primate cities are generally found in developing countries, although some developed countries, such as France, have them.

primate city

The labor sector made up of employees in retail trade and personal services; it is the sector most likely to increase in employment significance in postindustrial society.

service sector

A large, strategically located region composed of conflicting states caught between the conflicting interests of great powers.

shatter belt

Site is the specific geographic location of a given place, while situation is the accessibility of that site and the nature of the economic and population characteristics of that locale.

site and situation

The movement of pastoral nomads and their herd animals between low-elevation winter pastures and high-elevation summer pastures. Also known as vertical migration.

transhumance

A military alliance, now dissolved, consisting of the Soviet Union and the European countries of Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Warsaw pact

The shorthand term for the countries of the world that have been most influenced by Western civilization and that link most closely with the United States and Western Europe.

west

An airstream located in the middle latitudes that blows from west to east. Also known as westerlies.

westerly winds

The sum of values, practices, and achievements that had roots in ancient Mesopotamia, as well as Palestine, Greece, and Rome, and that subsequently flowered in western and southern Europe.

western civilization

What are the European sub-regions, and what countries constitute the sub-regions?